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Michelle Obama, Jackie Kennedy, Mamie Eisenhower—these are just a few of the 20th-century wives of American...

Michelle Obama, Jackie Kennedy, Mamie Eisenhower—these are just a few of the 20th-century wives of American presidents who have been immortalized under the blazing spotlight of public scrutiny and media coverage. But go back a hundred years to the First Ladies of the 19th century, and we find a group of women who have often been overlooked—and not because their contributions were less or their lives less colorful.